Naval Special Warfare
The command structure that binds the SEAL Teams, the boat crews and their supporting units into one force.
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Where It Began
Built For Water Nobody Else Would Enter
Naval Special Warfare traces its line to 1942, when the Navy needed men who could survey a hostile beach before an invasion touched it.
The Scouts and Raiders came first, followed by the Naval Combat Demolition Units and the Maritime Unit of the Office of Strategic Services. By the end of the Second World War the Underwater Demolition Teams had swum onto beaches across the Pacific and Europe, clearing obstacles by hand while the landing craft waited offshore.
President John F. Kennedy commissioned the first SEAL Teams in January 1962, taking the frogman skill set and extending it onto land and into the air. The name captured the reach: sea, air and land. In 1983 the remaining Underwater Demolition Teams were redesignated as SEAL and SEAL Delivery Vehicle Teams, and in 1987 Naval Special Warfare Command stood up in Coronado as the Navy component of United States Special Operations Command.
Alongside them, the boat crews grew into their own community. Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen deliver and recover operators in conditions that would turn back most vessels, and their skill is the reason many missions are possible at all.
The Navy SEALs
Selection, training and the culture that forms an operator, from BUD/S through the award of the Trident.
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SWCC
The combatant craft crews who insert and extract special operations forces by sea and river.
Read the historyThe only easy day was yesterday. Naval Special Warfare saying
Preserve the Record
Share a Piece of Team History
We collect photographs, documents and first hand accounts from across the Naval Special Warfare community. If you are holding something worth preserving, tell us.
- We handle originals with care and return them
- Digital scans are welcome
- Families of departed teammates encouraged to reach out
Contribute to the Archive
Describe what you have and we will follow up.